So the big July 1 free agent frenzy is over, and the teams have mostly solidified their lineups. There was some wild speculation going around a couple months back (Schneider + Kesler or Edler + pick for Nash ), I didn't think that GMMG was going to blow up the team following back to back President's trophies - and it still seems that he likes his lineup.

Suter or Weber or Parise or Nash would be nice, but I didn't get the impression that they want to come to BC, or that Gillis would start throwing crazy money in a bidding war.

So if we are looking for the final piece of the puzzle, what do we need?With the addition of Garrison we have our top 4 D set, so I can't see a major change unless a blue chip #1 becomes available.Seems that we have enough wingers, with Hansen, MayRay & Kassian slotted into the 3rd line, or replacing injuries in the top 6

Seems to me that we are looking for a 2nd line center. Not a 1st, not a 3rd (AKA Pahlsson)

Given that Kesler is out until Nov or Dec, and will probably not be back in form until a month or two later, we're going to need a solid 2nd line center for most of the season. Having Kesler ease his way back with 3rd line duties and then having 3 bona fide pivots come playoff time would be nice.

I could see the 'Nucks bring up a rookie center for the 3rd line to start the season, and have Manny/Lapierre stay on the 4th line. Do we think that Lapierre/Ebbett or an AHL rookie can center the 2nd line?Who would we look to take the job while Kes is out?What 2nd line centers are available and what would we give up?

The one player we really need is a guy who can moonlight at center but more importantly can play on the wing on a scoring line, a guy with some degree of creativity and enough skill to play on lines 1-3 but ideally is a fit with Ryan Kesler and David Booth.

Trouble is, I don't think there are too many players out there - let alone in unrestricted free agency.

If push came to shove I'd take a guy who can play the wing over a guy who can play center - assuming Jordan Schroeder is where people say he is in his development I would be okay going with Hank/JS/Manny/Max down the middle for a few weeks, especially if we had the skill level on the wings to compensate for the lack of depth.

To me having a player who improves the second line is probably more important than a player who improves the third line (presumably both acquisitions would improve the lines below them by pushing others down the depth chart).

On the free agent market you might be talking about a Shane Doan or Jaromir Jagr.. less realistic options might be Alex Semin (who I don't see as a fit, I think the guy still uses an interpreter in addition to not exactly fitting the Canucks prototype) or of course Zach Parise. In a Luongo trade maybe a player like Kris Versteeg is a guy you want to look at.

Going back to my original idea (a player who can moonlight at center or skate with Kesler) a guy like TJ Oshie would be ideal. Of course I think the odds of St. Louis trading their leading scorer are pretty slim given our most tradeable asset is a goaltender and they are probably pretty happy with theirs.

The one guy that's still out there that I'd love to have is Shane Doan. Although Jagr might be ok for a year too.

I dunno, the teams seems like it has a few holes (more than last year). Would love a big physical defensive D-man still, a bryan allen type, but he's gone. Maybe garrison will fill that role. Up front, there's still the question mark of Malhotra, can he regain his form pre-eye injury and a true enforcer (legitimate heavy weight) would be nice as well.

I was thinking that Ribeiro or Derek Roy might fit - a 2nd line guy that would go for less after a subpar season (and hopefully rebound)

Doan would be interesting - but do the Yotes want to let him go? (Assuming that he wants to stay there)

Semin would be a gamble, if he doesn't go to the KHL anyways....

dbr wrote:The one player we really need is a guy who can moonlight at center but more importantly can play on the wing on a scoring line, a guy with some degree of creativity and enough skill to play on lines 1-3 but ideally is a fit with Ryan Kesler and David Booth.

Trouble is, I don't think there are too many players out there - let alone in unrestricted free agency.

If push came to shove I'd take a guy who can play the wing over a guy who can play center - assuming Jordan Schroeder is where people say he is in his development I would be okay going with Hank/JS/Manny/Max down the middle for a few weeks, especially if we had the skill level on the wings to compensate for the lack of depth.

To me having a player who improves the second line is probably more important than a player who improves the third line (presumably both acquisitions would improve the lines below them by pushing others down the depth chart).

On the free agent market you might be talking about a Shane Doan or Jaromir Jagr.. less realistic options might be Alex Semin (who I don't see as a fit, I think the guy still uses an interpreter in addition to not exactly fitting the Canucks prototype) or of course Zach Parise. In a Luongo trade maybe a player like Kris Versteeg is a guy you want to look at.

Going back to my original idea (a player who can moonlight at center or skate with Kesler) a guy like TJ Oshie would be ideal. Of course I think the odds of St. Louis trading their leading scorer are pretty slim given our most tradeable asset is a goaltender and they are probably pretty happy with theirs.

Zamboni Driver wrote:I was thinking that Ribeiro or Derek Roy might fit - a 2nd line guy that would go for less after a subpar season (and hopefully rebound)

If Gillis signed or traded for Ribeiro I would hope that someone would shoot them both. I can't stand Riberio every time we played Dallas this year I was hoping that someone would run him from behind and end his career. Actually I was hoping to see that every time I saw a highlight of any game that included the Stars.

Doan would just be an older and upgraded Booth. But he plays hard.

Semin is a classic Russian sniper. He floats and does absolutely nothing until an opportunity presents itself then he pounces. But until that opportunity is there he's useless, and in a game where it's tight and he has to fight for the puck.....well he just disappears.

Meds wrote:Semin is a classic Russian sniper. He floats and does absolutely nothing until an opportunity presents itself then he pounces. But until that opportunity is there he's useless, and in a game where it's tight and he has to fight for the puck.....well he just disappears.

Pretty hard to average +23 for 4 years in a row just floating in the defensive end. And considering that he was hardly playing in front of Vezina calibre goalie...